Christy Ratliff is sitting in a folding chair in a public school gym in Grundy, Virginia, waiting for her number to be called. She arrived at 4 a.m. on this October Saturday to secure her position in line to have eight teeth pulled. Genetic gum disease, she explains, has left most of them rotten or broken. She hooks a finger to pull down her lip and show me gruesome damage—the kind most dentists see only in textbooks.
Ratliff is 29 years old.
Grundy, the seat of Buchanan County, sits deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. This weekend, it’s hosting a free clinic courtesy of Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit like Doctors Without Borders, but for places in the United States where the health outcomes are as grim as those in many developing countries. RAM founder Stan Brock once suggested that because Grundy is so inaccessible, his volunteers should literally parachute into town, as he once did while working in rural Africa.
Despite all the faith these locals have put in Trump, his second term is threatening their precarious existence. Few places in America are as reliant on the federal government. According to a recent study, 45 percent of the personal income of Buchanan County residents comes from Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and government disability programs. Federal dollars also account for about 15 percent of the county budget, subsidizing nearly every aspect of local life—education, economic development, disaster recovery, housing, sewer infrastructure. And Trump has succeeded in jeopardizing or eliminating nearly all of it.
“We live in a remote part of the world,” the driver says, declining to give his name. He’s here for denture work because Bradshaw has no dentist. He grew up in a holler, and like generations of his people, worked in the coal industry, including once for a company owned by Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.)—until his paychecks bounced, a chronic problem at Justice’s mines. Now he works in logging. He has no health insurance, he says. Like 80 percent of McDowell County’s voters, he cast his ballot for Trump: “He’s kicking ass and taking names. He’s cleaning up the gangs. He’s doing awesome with the immigrants, too.”
This sounds like a problem that takes care of itself, like so many other problems.
We have over-fishing. No problem, keep fishing until the fish are all gone. No more over-fishing.
We are destroying the climate. Keep destroying the climate until the people are all gone. Bingo! No more climate destruction.
These people have no food. Keep taking away the food until the people are gone. Boom! No more food shortage.
I mean this is simple stuff people. There’s no need to address any of it. It all takes care of itself.
That’s how cults work.
These people got nonsense views in their head because of religion. I think the only cure for many of these people we consider “too far gone” to convince rationally is through religion also.
FTFY: Trump has betrayed people
of coal country.“He thinks our people are idiots.”
Well, he isn’t that wrong, is he?
He has no health insurance, he says. Like 80 percent of McDowell County’s voters, he cast his ballot for Trump: “He’s kicking ass and taking names. He’s cleaning up the gangs. He’s doing awesome with the immigrants, too.”
JFC. He’s kicking your ass, and taking your name. And how many “gangs” are there in the holler?
These people should just wear signs directed at Republican politicians:
Kick me right in the balls to own the libs!
What you have to understand is that this is a death cult. These people have nothing, not even the hope for something more. They don’t care anymore; they just want people to suffer as they do. They know they’ll die without assistance, they just hope we all join them.
he has not betrayed them, he is infact in the WHITE House doing what he is doing because voted for him to do those things.
One of the volunteers mentions that SNAP benefits were due to be cut on November 1 because of the government shutdown. “That’s going to be terrible,” Fields says with alarm. “If they cut out food stamps, we’re going to be swamped. In this area, they’ve already laid off a bunch of people from Wellmore. They need help.”
The prediction proved prescient. In a Facebook post at the end of November, a month after the new SNAP rules took effect, Feeding My Sheep announced, “Our shelves are currently depleted. We typically maintain a three-month supply of food. This past month, we distributed 32 percent more food than usual. Notably, we served a record 630 families.”
Did Fields know that Trump’s budget cuts were the reason she was getting less food from USDA, and why SNAP was getting cut? Her response reflected the restraint I had come to recognize in the women here, especially when dealing with outsiders. “He may not realize what’s happening,” she finally responds. “I’m praying that he will take care of America. I’m hoping he gets food to the needy.”
That’s a cult within a cult within a desperate population.
They’re basically cult members. I feel bad for them.
I kinda do and I don’t. Half of those people would call me an ethnic slur behind my back.
I’m British/Canadian and when I was in the UK during Brexit I was chatting with my friends and my Austrian friend said this to me: “we will be fine, we’re smart hardworking men in the economy … we may not eat as well, but we will find ways to eat.”
We vote to make sure we’re all safe and they vote to only make themselves safe while instead putting us all in danger. I’m all out of fucks to give to any of these people.
This is why we can’t have sympathy nor empathy for MAGAts, and having any for them is both weakness and morally objectionable.
These people prove time and time again they are beyond redemption and operate solely on hatred for minorities and women.
Its fucking infuriating to see so many leftists still blind themselves with this undeniable bullshit that MAGAts can still be reached, or that their ignorance is not also malice.
These people are a hostile enemy, plain and simple.
That’s the hyper liberal weakness. Empathy for all. Care for all. Acceptance for all.
Unfortunately, in reality, that is not possible unless you want to be destroyed.
I agree that once you keep tolerating the intolerable so far that rot sets in, yeah, it’ll be a bad time. But I think a lot of this could have been solved by empathy in the first place. People caring enough for their neighbours to feed the needy, or educate children with genuine love, or just handling with care people who a long time ago could have used some empathy, or even sympathy.
Instead they get starved, taxed to death, left to the evangelical wolves, extorted by health care, killed by their government. No wonder they have no empathy left to give back when the world could really use it, they’ve been exploited too, brainwashed, in their algorithmic social media bubbles.
I’m not foolish enough to believe that it solves every issue, and psychopaths aren’t going to be cured, but if the system didn’t treat people the way it does, we’d have a whole lot less of this strife.
At least, it seems to me that you need some empathy to build a functioning society, because we can see with our own eyes the manifestation of one without it
According to a recent study, 45 percent of the personal income of Buchanan County residents comes from Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and government disability programs
And yet they voted for someone who would call them ‘lazy parasites’ and wanted to end ‘handouts’… really there’s no saving them.
No, my social security and SNAP benefits aren’t handouts because my skin is white
I hear ya, and I so get it. But look, these people aren’t trying to be evil or whatever. They’re getting crushed out of existence and grasping for anything familiar. Stupidly, poorly, but some of it’s understandable.
It’s a shame all the way around. Places like these are home to racist bullies, jesus freaks, gravy seals and crooked good ol’ boys, but they’re also home to people just literally trying to feed their family and be a good person as best as they know how.
If you want to condemn everyone, you have to wrong some innocents. I think we all know that Fox News and the republican party have created this self-defeating dystopia, but it’s not all bad and it can definitely be good.
The article is long but there’s lots of examples.
Stop feeling bad for these people. They’re getting exactly what they deserve. They’ve been doing this to themselves for many years and yet they blame everyone else for their problems. They’re trash.
Seriously, it’s gross how much effort you put into making excuses for them. They would NEVER do that for you.
Their reaction to suffering is to make other people suffer even worse. Fuck them. I want the next Dem president to impound every single cent they get from the federal government. The only thing that will make them change is severe consequences for their vapid performative bullshit “morality”.
If someone is trying to kill me, I am going to defend myself and I am not going to feel bad if in that defense they meet their demise.
These people, for whatever the reason may be, are trying to kill me and people I care about. And it may be different where you are, but the ones around where I live hate, genuinely hate anyone that disagrees with their way of life and they chant for their death.
So, fuck these people, fuck all of them even the ones that are being duped or are being taken advantage of - because as long as they exist they will continue to contribute to the problem.
I feel bad if some chickens have to be culled due to disease. I love animals. But I recognize they still need to be culled.
So do these people.
I hear ya, and I so get it. But look, these people aren’t trying to be evil or whatever.
I grew up in Appalachia.
These people do not have bad hearts insofar as they’re not sociopaths. They’re very capable of kindness and love, even towards total strangers.
But they bear a set of bizarre values that absolutely ends up with them trying to be, by our standards, evil.
I hear ya, and I so get it. But look, these people aren’t trying to be evil or whatever. They’re getting crushed out of existence and grasping for anything familiar. Stupidly, poorly, but some of it’s understandable.
I disagree whole heartedly and I’d point to both this article and the countless examples of these human chodes seal clapping and cheering along the murder of innocent civilians by the ICE gestapo as just one example.
These people have reached a point to where they are either outright denying Trump’s child rape and going all g with the Epstein cover up, or outright doing everything they can to justify child rape and act like its no big deal since Trump does it.
This pattern repeats with literally all evils their god-emporer does. What the left needs to realize is we have long surpassed the point where MAGA malice and MAGA ignorance has become the same exact thing.
There is zero excuse whatsoever. There is nothing to understand from their perspectives. The dog whistles have become bull horns. They are, quite simply, a hostile enemy of democracy and human rights. And their legacy will only ever remain the colossal ocean of blood they left behind.
It’s a shame all the way around. Places like these are home to racist bullies, jesus freaks, gravy seals and crooked good ol’ boys, but they’re also home to people just literally trying to feed their family and be a good person as best as they know how.
And what you should understand is the “people just literally trying to feed their family and be a good person as best as they know how.” are objectively not the Trumpers. They simply are not.
These people don’t continue to worship Trump because they’re desperate. They do it because they believe in his power. They believe in his genocide of brown people. They believe in his crusade against lgbtq+ people. And they believe in his war on everyone who isn’t a white Christian man.
We need to stop pretending these people have good intentions. Good intentions don’t compromise basic morality and fundamental critical thinking skills. Hate does. Greed does. Hostility does. Malice does.
If you want to condemn everyone, you have to wrong some innocents.
This is fundamentally untrue when it comes to the MAGA cult. They are irrefutably supporting the billionaire cabal of child rape Trump and Epstein both ran. They are objectively supporting the genocide of racial minorities, the lgbtq+ crowd, Palestinians, and so many more.
They’re praising the ICE Gestapo conducting a domestic genocide and killing any and all dissidents. They’re running to their keyboards, families, neighbors and coworkers to scream the exact bullshit propaganda Trump feeds them to justify such atrocities.
I need you to take a moment to realize you’re genuinely, and unreasonably trying to scrape up some nuance… of Nazism.
Here’s some advice to save you time: there is ZERO nuance to Nazism. All Nazis are bastards. All Nazis are enemies. Because all Nazis ultimately want to see you, everyone you love and everyone you care for killed.
Its simply just reality.
I think we all know that Fox News and the republican party have created this self-defeating dystopia, but it’s not all bad and it can definitely be good.
There’s nothing good about Nazism or Nazis. Full stop, plain and simple.
Bravo homie. I hope you’re not using* AI because this comment is the shit.
Not AI. You can tell because I keep making typos on my phone keyboard.
Hate all you want, we have to find a way to show them what’s actually happening.
Because I disagree they know shit about Gaza or USAID or DOGE and we want H4A so how are we gonna get there when they keep voting in whoever’s on tv?
Because I disagree they know shit about Gaza or USAID or DOGE
They don’t know shit about those things because they discard any information that makes them uncomfortably while privileging any information that affirms their pre-existing position or prejudices. I pride myself that I’m pretty good at arguing with people, and IRL, I tend to take a much softer tone because I have to deal with these fucks day-in and day-out. There’s no block function in meatworld if I find them too tedious. And let me tell you - you can lay it out in terms they absolutely understand, and in a week, a day, an hour, they will revert to their prior position. They don’t ‘forget’ what was said, they disregard it. “Well, it’s just my opinion. Who knows what’s true anyway? There’s a lot of lies on both sides.”
Their positions are not predicated on their knowledge, nor are they interested in retaining knowledge that contradicts their positions.
and we want H4A so how are we gonna get there when they keep voting in whoever’s on tv?
Fucked if I know. Really wish that ‘demographic destiny’ bullshit peddled in the late 2000s worked out better.
Really wish that ‘demographic destiny’ bullshit peddled in the late 2000s worked out better.
Honestly, I think that’s partly why the conservatives are all having a collective freakout and back someone like Pedonald.
Wish I had that kind of optimism anymore.
Hate all you want, we have to find a way to show them what’s actually happening.
It’s all out there in the open. Its not that they don’t see this information because its not reaching them. It’s because they don’t want to see it.
Don’t get me wrong, we should still spam-fuck it to them, but don’t expect much in the way of rescuing any of them from.the cult.
Because I disagree they know shit about Gaza or USAID or DOGE and we want H4A so how are we gonna get there when they keep voting in whoever’s on tv?
It doesn’t matter, does it?
They didn’t know shit about Iran did they? Yet they all scrambled to justify the failed and illegal bombing of Iran after it happened.
They didn’t know shit about Venezuela, did they? Yet suddenly they’re scrambling to support regime change war in Venezuela and raping the country of its oil.
They didn’t support the idea of the feds publicly executing someone for exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, did they. Yet they’re all foaming at the mouth to justify Alex Pretti’s murder and are blaming him having a gun.
You need to understand that it doesn’t matter, not even in the slightest, what you expose to these Nazi fucks. They will change every position they have to defend Trump and his atrocities.
Latest example: everything to do with Epstein and Trump raping children coming to light. Suddenly they’re all pro-child rape now.
When you start policing who we can and can’t have empathy for you’re literally agreeing with JD Vance.
Disagree. Intolerance of intolerance is far different than intolerance.
How incredibly stupid.
I’m telling you not to spare empathy for a hostile, violent mob of Nazis. If you see a problem with that, then buddy I got news for you. You are the problem.
You, and every single supposed leftist who’s crying about us taking the right position on this issue, are the modern incarnation of Neville Chamberlain. And just like him, the kid gloves you approach these Nazi bastards with is only going to create far more suffering and far more enabling of their atrocities.
So get with the program, or sit this one the fuck out, because you aren’t helping, you’re objectively hurting.
I’m telling you not to spare empathy for a hostile, violent mob of Nazis. If you see a problem with that, then buddy I got news for you. You are the problem
… you mean the lady with most of her teeth rotting out of her head at 29, who maybe would just keep voting against how own interests for her abuser who keeps telling her the left hates her, everybody hates her, nobody loves her but him because she’s unlovable, and then of course keeps abusing her?
Except the article mentions she didn’t even bother to vote at all. But yeah she says she still supports Trump. You think that lady is really paying attention to Jack shit in the world outside of her day to day grind of figuring out how to function and idk just eat like a normal person while constantly living with the pain of all her fucking teeth rotting out of her head?
Hopefully somebody can be sure to pass on your message telling everybody thinks she’s worthless and hopes she fucking dies because she’s poor and dumb.
Surely next time she’ll think long and hard about the consequences of voting (or not voting) in her own interest. Hopefully the Dems already have you booked as a campaign strategist because your finger is on the pulse of the heartland.💓🇺🇸
Roughly 20 percent of Buchanan County residents have no teeth at all. “That’s not something you see even in dental school,” says Dr. Kevin D’Angelo, a University of Buffalo dentistry professor who’s been overseeing the local RAM dental clinic for decades. “You just don’t get that.”
Well… yeah but she probably voted for him in 2016 too. I bet before Trump was ever elected it was probably a booming metropolis. It’s not like Appalachia’s problems stem from being one of the areas hit the hardest by the opiate epidemic that began before Obama was even office. Or like it’s a generally long neglected part of America in dire need of help or anyth…
In 2015, the Atlantic dubbed Grundy “the sickest town in America.” Now it is famous for another reason: One of America’s sickest, poorest places is also one of its Trumpiest.
Well yeah but this probably just goes to show those people are so fucking worthless it’s probably genetic. Anyway who gives a shit Just throw a tarp over it or something AMIRITE?!
🫸🫷…/s
a few more notable qoutes: suckers and losers, whats in it for them.
you vote d on what i campaigned on.
They love him because they think they can just keep collecting money from blue states with no consequence. Time to stop supporting these deadbeats.
I think it’s more they easily fell for the propaganda. If I understand correctly information is still at best local television and radio and unfortunately they are slowly considered obsolete by corporate America, and when it comes to providing tech Silicon Valley doesn’t see much in the way of profit given so little in wealth exists.
And oh would you look at that guess which party is not big on the government funding free and/or affordable communication technology but rather “let the free market figure it out.”
Time to stop supporting these deadbeats.
I mean, voting for Trump literally did more to cut them off than anything else. It’s not like you need to pile in on top of the degree to which, say, Appalachians have dicked themselves over.
Did it, though? I want my tax dollars to help the good people in my state, not these window lickers.
So, I’m pretty exasperated with the Trump fans too.
However, I also did do what I could to understand where people are coming from. Bought several books written by political science people talking about the elections and motivations.
Let me put it this way. A lot of people here on the left, on the Threadiverse, would probably criticize Margaret Thatcher because she largely shut down coal mining in the UK.
The coal workers in the article are basically in the same boat as those coal workers. Hillary Clinton once — truthfully, if perhaps not showing a lot of sensitivity — said that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of work”. Those people are right wing, but in significant part, they’re voting for Trump for the same reasons that the coal miners in the UK voted for Labour — because they’re scared of their coal mining jobs going away, want more demand for their labor. For them, Hillary Clinton is their Margaret Thatcher, and Trump at least represents the possibility of salvation.
We have to stop burning coal. We can’t continue emitting carbon dioxide.
I agree. I’m not arguing that we should mine more coal. I think that shutting down coal mining here is the right move (and, for that matter, that shutting it down in the UK was too). But I do think that it’s important to at least understand why people are doing some of the things they’re doing, even if one doesn’t agree with them.
There aren’t that many people employed by the coal mining industry directly, not anymore, but there are companies that support the coal mining industry. Maybe they provide rail or maintenance services. Maybe they’re a restaurant that serves people who get money from the coal industry. Stuff like that. Coal goes away, so do the supporting businesses.
Those people probably aren’t making very good political moves, not by my estimation. But they’re doing it because if the industry goes away, so do their jobs. So do a lot of their villages. I’d say that Trump is lying, yeah, but Trump is promising them hope – a coal renaissance.
Wyoming and West Virginia are our two top coal-mining states. They also had the highest percentage vote share of all states for Trump in the 2024 general presidential election.
And then you have the oil and natural gas industries. Those are a lot bigger in some other states. If you transition to other power sources, those guys are going to be out of a job too.
I’m willing to say “Well, sorry, guys, but that industry just doesn’t make sense any more. You’re going to have to find new jobs, and you are probably going to have to move.” But for those people, that’s going to mean losing towns and stuff that they put time into. Their social network goes away, has to be rebuilt somewhere else. The largest investment that most Americans make is in their home. If people leave en masse, the value of that property falls too. Their net worth falls. I’m just saying that what Trump is dangling in front of them is the prospect of not having to do that. Yeah, it’s not true — he’s giving them a pleasant lie. But I think that it is, unfortunately, a very human trait to readily believe things that we want to be true, especially when someone is working very hard to make us believe them.
Ok, but here me out. Trump gave them…
They love him anyway because they think their sacrificial role is for the good of America. How very socialist of them!
